The COVID-19 pandemic officially spread to all 50 states by Tuesday, March 17, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. As of Thursday, March 19, a total of 10,442 cases have been reported in the U.S., plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with and 150 deaths.

Companies in the recycling industry have responded to the coronavirus pandemic by adding formal or informal company policies on sick time and hygiene.

“This kind of came up on us very quickly,” says Mark Zwilsky, CEO of Sterling, Virginia-based Potomac Metals. “We’ve been offering an extremely liberal leave policy right now.”

Sarah Zwilsky, Mark’s daughter and the administrator at Potomac Metals, says the company had a managerial meeting March 17 to discuss what it would do for employees if the government requires Potomac Metals to shut its doors in response to the pandemic. She adds that the company is trying to be very transparent with employees on its actions.

“Our employees are very concerned with what’s going to happen next,” she says. “With COVID-19, we are being transparent and upfront. We’ve offered some extra time off, a couple of extra paid days off. Then, we’re also wiping everything down and trying to provide guidelines in both Spanish and English for our employees. We’re trying to be careful, cautious and proactive with COVID-19.”

Toledo, Ohio-based Kripke Enterprises Inc. also has released safety protocol to its employees during the third week of March to provide best practices, such as wearing latex gloves underneath work gloves, as COVID-19 can remain on cardboard for up to 12 hours and on metal surfaces for two to four days, the company reports.

“We’re staying ahead of the curve as the coronavirus spreads through North America,” Kripke shared in its safety protocol. “As this unfolds, we will be taking the necessary precautions to minimize risk for all of us at [Kripke Metal Processing] when handling scrap.”

At Dallas-based Texas Recycling, president and co-owner Joel Litman says his company has taken some precautions in response to COVID-19. He says the company shut down its buyback operation March 17 to eliminate face-to-face contact with individuals trying to drop off paper and metal scrap.

“We got the word out to customers [March 16] this would be happening, so that day was good, and many people brought in material knowing we would be closed,” Litman says.

As another precaution, Texas Recycling divided up its lunch to four shifts to reduce the number of people using the lunchroom at a single time. “We also have a companywide production meeting every morning at 9:15 with 30 people, but we disbanded that and do that in much smaller groups,” he says.

Litman adds that the company’s secure document destruction business has slowed since COVID-19 began to spread in the U.S. “On our shredding side, we are running into the situation of more schools and offices closing that we serve. This is affecting how much businesses are shredding,” he says.

Some recycling collection centers have announced plans to close temporarily as of mid-March. California-based Humboldt Waste Management Authority (HWMA) announced the third week of March that its Eureka Recycling Center in Eureka, California, was closed until further notice as a precautionary measure following recommendations to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Ohio-based scrap processor Cohen reported March 16 that it was closing “all retail recycling locations to the general public” as of that day.

“This in no way impacts the overall Cohen business, and we will continue to service all other commercial and industrial customers,” the company states. “This difficult decision comes after much deliberation and input from expert sources in the public and private sectors. Employees who work on the retail side of the business will be cross-trained in other areas of the operations to help ensure business continuity at each location.”

Other companies have reassured that their businesses will remain operational, with Chesapeake Materials, Edgewater, Maryland, alerting its customers that the company “is still working remotely and here to help. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to assist you during these uncertain times.” The company adds, “We are still moving material, we are arranging quick payment terms with our suppliers who may need operating cash to help support their employees. We are supplying our manufacturers with materials to keep plants running and stores stocked with essentials. We ask that you work with us on delivery and pick up appointments as freight is more challenging than ever and we are doing our best to navigate through it. Please feel free to reach out to us for all and any needs. We are in this together and together we will come out the other side stronger.”

The Washington-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) has communicated to its members that it is “working aggressively for our industry on the national stage in ways [individual recyclers] could not do alone.”

ISRI Paper Stock Industries Chapter President Leonard Zeid says on March 18 the association submitted a letter to Vice President Pence “requesting that recycling operations be designated ‘essential’ to public health and welfare, as well as to our nation’s economic infrastructure on the local, state, and national levels.”

Some demand escalates

Litman adds, “Domestic demand [for recovered paper] is there, but now the question is supply—especially you’ll see demand from corrugated mills and mills that make tissue in the short term.”

“I don’t know if it’s going to last, but the demand for paper is up right now due to the coronavirus,” adds Marty Davis of Moline, Illinois-based Midland Davis Corp. “Tissue business is good right now with all of the [sorted office paper], white ledger and coated book stock in better demand.”

Recovered paper demand is rising from mills, according to a broker on the West Coast. However, he adds, generation of recovered paper by recyclers and material recovery facilities (MRFs) is dropping this month.

“February always has low inbound generation, but March is usually a good rebound mark,” the broker on the West Coast says. “March is not rebounding. Inbound material, whether at commercial recycling plants or residential MRFs, is way off when it should be up.”

While recovered paper demand is improving amid the pandemic, Davis adds that demand for ferrous scrap is declining.

“This is having the opposite affect on the scrap iron market,” he says. “The market was expected to go up this month, and it didn’t. It has stayed the same. All expectations are that ferrous will be down, and down hard next month.”

Aluminum supply chain to see effects

While a trader for a scrap processing company based in the Midwest says he has not seen a coronavirus-related effect on supply and demand for aluminum scrap as of early March, he adds, “Certainly, it’s impacting the terminal markets given the increasing fear of a global slowdown in terms of manufacturing.”

That fear was becoming more tangible as of mid-March, when automakers in Europe and the United States announced they would be halting production temporarily in response to the outbreak. While those announcements were made in mid-March, aluminum scrap processors and traders already were noticing that generation had slowed.

“Scrap generation is a little slow but, overall, pretty steady,” an aluminum scrap broker based in the Midwest says. “Lower steel prices have hurt the flow of retail scrap, and recently coronavirus fears have slowed down some industrial production of scrap.”

The trader for a scrap processing company based in the Midwest also points to a decrease in retail sales. “For the most part, we have seen our industrial sectors hold steady with slightly declining obsolete scrap coming into our yards,” he says. “The all-in value of most every product has discouraged a bit of that activity. But manufacturing sectors prevalent in our region remain pretty strong,” the trader says, citing auto, RV and boat manufacturers in particular.

A source with a West Coast-based scrap processor says his company has seen a “slight slowdown in scrap generation,” which he attributes to trouble at Boeing and with the aerospace sector in general.

In January, Boeing suspended manufacturing of its 737 Max planes, which have been grounded worldwide for a year following two fatal crashes. The company had manufactured 400 planes it was unable to deliver because of questions that remain regarding the crashes.

On top of those issues with the 737 Max, Boeing has sought at least $60 billion to assist the aerospace industry as it struggles with declining demand arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

However, he says his company sees China’s demand starting to ramp up with the country’s reclassification of some high-quality grades of scrap that is planned for July.

While the fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak and its effect on the aluminum supply chain cannot yet be determined, sources are expecting it to be affected.

“We feel it will be a four-to-six-week drought as an increasing amount of companies are looking to close or shutter,” the source on the West Coast says of aluminum scrap supply. “The effect is taking us into the second quarter, with stability in uptake in the second half of the year.”

Updating the industry

Andy Golding, a trader at Kripke Enterprises Inc., Toledo, Ohio, told Recycling Today he created a Google Drive file for scrap processors to openly share their policies, protocols and crisis response plans with one another, which can be found here.

Golding says he is encouraging scrap processors to add their protocols to this file. Interested companies can email him with that information at andy@kripke.com.

BIR reports that winners were selected from more than 2,000 entries from across the globe, covering eight countries and all the main continents. The following are the 10 #RecyclingHeroes:

• Plogging Club – Nigeria: This is a movement inspiring young people across Nigerian campuses to take action for the climate through exercise that combines jogging with picking up litter and recyclables.

• Reform Africa – Uganda: This is a group that is tackling waste disposal by transforming plastic waste into sustainable, waterproof and durable bags, employing youth to collect the plastic waste, and single mothers who wash and tailor the products.

• U-Recycle – Nigeria: This is a youth-led nonprofit that is working to promote a circular economy in Nigeria through reinforcing a sustainable recycling culture, investing time and resources into educating schools and communities about the value of recycling.

• Zizo Ezi Foundation – South Africa: This is a nonprofit that operates in South Africa in the Eastern Cape and works with school children in rural areas teaching them on the benefits, as well as the dos and don'ts regarding a clean eco-future in South Africa.

• Anuya Trivedi, Founder of Greenbuddies – India: This is an organization that creates eco-designed, cost effective ‘Recycled Play Stations’ for children out of tires and other reusable scraps.

• Aribe Bajwa, Founder of Social Ambassadors – Pakistan: This is a youth-based organization working toward community empowerment and specifically towards environmental causes, including planting 300,000 plus trees and providing training and awareness sessions on conservation of environment at different institutions.

• Made by TREID – Philippines: Made by TREID extends the life consumption of old clothes and uniforms to reduce environmental waste by transforming them into higher valued products such as multifunctional and fashionable shoes and bags, home accessories and new fabric, while also providing job opportunities to disadvantaged people.

• Ecolana – Mexico: This is a social impact company focused on inclusive recycling practices in Mexico. On the one hand it is a digital platform with a recycling guide (a map and a waste-materials dictionary) that guides consumers on how and where to recycle, and on the other it helps consumer brands develop recycling programs.

• Cappabue National School – Ireland: This small school in Cork, Ireland is raising awareness of climate change with their viral rap video ‘One Small Change,’ a response to polluted beaches in Co Cork.

• Nick Oettinger, managing director and founder of The Furniture Recycling Group – United Kingdom: The Furniture Recycling Group is helping to tackle U.K.’s mattress landfill problem, diverting 400,000 mattresses away from landfills each year. The company has recycled more than 1.5 million mattresses since launching and is continually investing in research to make the recycling of mattresses more viable and much more efficient.

The #RecyclingHeroes competition, which was launched in February, encouraged people from across the globe to nominate individuals, businesses or communities that are setting examples and pushing boundaries with their recycling initiatives, BIR reports. In addition to receiving $1,000 prizes, the Global Recycling Foundation plans to promote the 10 winners’ work to audiences across the world.

“We are proud to recognize the world’s unsung #RecyclingHeroes, from children, schools, teachers and professionals to businesses and communities, and everyone in-between,” says Ranjit S. Baxi, founder and president of the Global Recycling Foundation. “Global Recycling Day allows everyone to play their part in the circular economy, help protect our natural resources and build a better future for generations to come. Anyone can be a #RecyclingHero, no matter how big or small their recycling initiatives are.”

ISRI cancels 2020 convention

The Washington-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) has canceled its ISRI2020 convention, which had been scheduled for late April at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

In a March 19 email to members, ISRI President Robin Wiener writes, “In light of increasing government restrictions on large gatherings and recommendations from global health organizations, ISRI has made the difficult decision to cancel ISRI2020.”

She adds, “Rescheduling, or even relocating, this flagship event proved simply impossible, which means that ISRI will be looking ahead to ISRI2021 in San Diego as the next large-scale annual convention and exhibition for our industry."

Wiener indicates ISRI intends to schedule virtual options for staying connected to its membership base. “ISRI is already working on providing additional programming to help members deal with the economic, and health and safety concerns surround the COVID-19 pandemic,” writes Wiener. “In addition, ISRI will be virtually offering many of the same great educational programs that were to be offered at the convention. Please keep your eyes open for announcements that will be coming in the weeks ahead.”

The ISRI president also says the organization will soon contact exhibitors and attendees regarding refunds and other arrangements related to the canceled ISRI2020 convention.

Joint VRA/SWANA conference postponed

The Virginia Recycling Association (VRA) and the Solid Waste Association of North America Old Dominion Chapter (SWANA) have postponed their joint conference and trade show in light of concern about the coronavirus COVID 19.

Originally scheduled for April, the conference has been rescheduled for Oct. 27-30 at the Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront. The theme of the conference is Navigating Changes on the Horizon which will speak to the challenges the industries face as global recycling markets are in flux.

All existing conference registrations will automatically be applied to the new conference dates, however these registrants should also visit vrarecycles.org for instructions about April hotel room cancellations, information about the new hotel block, conference schedule and the cancellation policy, if the October conference is not feasible.

For more info about the 2020 Joint VRA & SWANA Conference, visit the conference site at vrarecycles.org or call 804-302-4231.

Germany-based Stadler has completed commissioning a new beverage packaging sorting plant it designed and built for Dansk Retursystem in Taastrup, Denmark. Full handover is scheduled for April, at the end of the final one-month trial period.

The inauguration ceremony for the plant, held March 10, was hosted by Dansk Retursystem Chief Executive Officer Lars Krejberg Petersen and attended by guests of honor Frederick, crown prince of Denmark and Lea Wermelin, minister of the environment.

The plant will process the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and aluminum cans collected throughout the country via the return system, producing bales for recycling. With a capacity of 110 cubic meters per hour, it is expected to process around 55 percent of the country’s cans and PET bottles, for a total of more than 25,000 metric tons of material per year, working 16 hours per day on two shifts, for 300 days per year.

Dansk Retursystem is a nonprofit company owned by Danish breweries and regulated by statutory order under the Danish Environmental Protection Act. Founded in 2000, it operates the country’s deposit and return system for beverage bottles and cans with the aim of recycling as many as possible into new ones. All profits are reinvested into the company to improve the system and ensure that the high return rate is maintained or raised even further. The Danish Environmental Protection Agency monitors Dansk Retursystem’s activities and periodically reviews its operation to renew its exclusive right to operate the country’s deposit and return system for a new term.

Dansk Retursystem collects bottles and cans from reverse vending machines found at 3,000 stores across the country, from retailers, shops, offices, cafés and restaurants, or through the “pantstation” deposit return banks located in 12 cities. It sorts all the collected packaging into glass and plastic bottles and aluminium cans, which are recycled into new packaging. The result of this system is that 9 out of 10 bottles marked for deposit are returned and recycled, with very little waste in the process.

Efficient and precise sorting of the collected bottles and cans is crucial to the success of Dansk Retursystem’s operation, so the company opted for a Europe-wide tender process to select the supplier for its new plant.

In Stadler the company found “a dedicated professional integrator capable of providing an end-to-end solution for material streams,” explains Petersen,who is also very satisfied with the support received throughout the project: “Stadler also performed very well on the soft parameters.”

Having won the tender, Stadler designed the plant and started assembly in Nov. 2019.

The plant uses magnetic separation to sort the aluminum cans, ejecting any ferrous materials, and near-infrared (NIR) technology for the PET bottles. Also part of the process is the removal of loose labels. At the end of the line, balers compact the aluminum cans on one output line and PET bottles on the other.

The project presented particular challenges because of the high level of automatization and flexibility of the plant, which required Stadler’s ingenuity to develop a tailored solution. Armin Winand, joint project manager explains: “This is a fully automated sorting plant with a high throughput. We addressed this with extra-large intermediate bunkers with a capacity up to 240 cubic meters at various stages of the process and a similarly oversized bunker conveyor 20 meters long, 4 meters wide and 4 meters high. This is the biggest Stadler has ever designed and built. At the end of the process, the aluminum and PET bales are transported automatically into the storage area.”

“The plant also stands out for its extreme flexibility, which allows the customer to select different operating modes according to requirements,” adds Urban Konzic of the sales team. “Also, management of the unloading of incoming materials is automated, with the Stadler system indicating to the delivery truck drivers in which of five bunkers they should unload.”

This is Stadler’s first project for Dansk Retursystem, which says it is impressed with the design and execution of the project: “Dansk Retursystems’ experience with recycling combined with Stadler’s vast experience with building plants means that we will have a fully automatized and highly technological plant that will ensure an even more efficient recycling of cans and bottles. This will benefit the environment and the climate,” concludes Petersen.